myc4.com

7.9% ROI on my MyC4 loans in the past year

wiseclerk

MyC4About a year ago I started lending money to African entrepreneurs via MyC4.com.  So far it did meet my expectations. The process of uploading money worked without problems, there were always enough loan applications to select from and the offered interest rates were high enough to allow for good returns despite the risks. The only point, where the usability need to be vastly improved is a better status overview for the payment status of all loans in the portfolio. MyC4 does show the payment status in detail for each loan, but its hard to get an aggregate overview.

I invested at 13.8% average nominal interest rate. 194 loans are currently running, 29 are repaid in full, 12 are open/pending (not yet disbursed), 1 defaulted and 4 were cancelled.

To roughly calculate estimate my ROI I looked at my account display at MyC4

MyC4

About 12-13 months ago I uploaded 1,506.94 Euro. Now my account value is 1,625.24 Euro (9,09 Euro available + 124,62 Euro pending bids + 1.491,93 Euro Outstanding principal). That results in an ROI of 7.9% so far. Naturally it would drop, if the outstanding principal is not repaid in full due to defaults.

The ROI is much lower then the average interest rate, since it does take weeks before an investment in a loan becomes active – and unlend money does not yield interest. A further point is that several late loans affect the ROI.

Read all MyC4 posts from the past months.

Checking on MyC4 late loans

wiseclerk 1 Comment

Lenders at MyC4.com do not have an easy task, when trying to check which of their loans are late on the repayments. The account page does not offer a comprehensive overview page. If a lender really wanted to check in detail he has to click through to the detail page of each loan he invested into.

Officially only one loan has the status ‘defaulted’ so far. However MyC4 so far has no standard policy when a late loan is to be declared defaulted. MyC4 has stated that there will be a default policy by the end of August.

Researching the situation, there are more than 320 loans that are late (fully or partly) with at least one repayment. Of these 72 loans are 3 payments late, 64 loans are 4 payments late, 30 are 5 payments late and 22 are 6 or more payments late.

Another issue that raised some concerns are the first impacts of the changed rules regarding currency risks.

… as some of you might have noticed already the first repayments are now posted on the investors accounts from Kenian investments where we investors are now taking the risk of currency fluctuations.

Within the first period from disbursement to the first repayment the KES has devalued from 97 to 104.5 = 7.2% already. … (Source: see discussion here)

To help lenders selecting loans to invest in, a column with the information whether a loan open for bidding is issued in local currency or in Euro was added to the wiseclerk MyC4 statistic pages.

(Source: uses information from Status der … MyC4 Kredite)

MyC4 with accounting troubles

wiseclerk

Since the new release, MyC4.com has encoutered repeated accounting problems, sometimes with wrong interest calculations, sometimes requiring correction of user account balances. 

Examples of incidents: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

MyC4's staff has been quick to respond to the problems and usually is fixing them fast.
But I believe the issue here is, that p2p lending through a foreign internet startup requires a great amount of trust. And while lenders are used to bugs in new internet application, they do expect a high standard when it comes to accounting. After all no user of online banking would accept that he has to check the interest calculations made by the bank. 

The MyC4 team did a good job developing the platform so far and earned at lot of trust; but if the problems persists this might be an obstacle to further growth. 

Status of my MyC4 loans

wiseclerk

I have lend money in over 170 loans on MyC4.com. My average interest rate is 13.8%. There are no defaults yet (not only in my portfolio, but overall). But lately there are several loans that are late (usually up to one month).

In the account balance late loans are recorded as repayments with zero value:

Latest borrower who went late is Sarah Akany, who runs a computer training and internet center in Uganda. I don't really worry, since she went late once before and caught up again.

The provider (CMC) posted the following notice to lenders on the blog:

Dear investors,

We have contacted the client and she has promised to clear the late payment. We shall continue tracking the client and ensure payment.
Thanks.

 

MyC4 with new look – currency risk now to be covered by lender

wiseclerk 1 Comment

Today MyC4 presents itself in an all new shiny layout. On MyC4 lenders can give loans to small businesses in Africa. Unlike at Kiva, lenders at MyC4 earn interest. So far 1.8 million Euros (approx. 1.2 million US$) have been invested in loans and there are no defaults yet – only several late payments. With the new release …

… three key elements have been prioritized on the new website; usability, design and communication. We have made it easier to understand what MyC4 is all about, how to join, how to upload money, how to find a Business, which fits your criteria and lastly how you invest and re-invest.

According to MyC4 the changes in today's release are:

  • The look of MyC4.com has been updated
  • Improved navigation making it easier to find your way around via a top menu and a left hand menu with sub-levels
  • “Opportunity” changed to “Business” – to access the overview of Businesses, click on “INVEST” in the top menu
  • MyCredits is now changed to EURO (€)
  • The Investor now carries the Currency Risk
  • Withholding tax

I also noticed that MyC4 is no longer marked as "beta".
The handling of currency risk is a major change. The announcement email says:

At MyC4 we want to offer a sustainable and easy to understand solution for the African Businesses. The currency Risk has until now been carried by the African Business, but this has uncertainty for their loan conditions.

To ensure that MyC4 and the African Businesses are sustainable in the long run a new model for the Currency Risk has been developed. We now transfer the Currency Risk to the Investor, which has to be covered by the size of the interest rate you demand.

As a consequence please be aware that going forward there is a Currency Risk on your new investment when investing in some African countries. MyC4 cannot advise on the daily currency development, but based on the last 3 years currency fluctuation we suggest as a guideline that your add the following percentages to your normal wanted interest rate to cover for the potential Currency Risk;

Uganda 6%
Kenya 2%
Côte d’Ivoire 0%

This means that if you where planning to Bid on a Business in Kenya with an interest of 8% in mind you now add the 2% – so you Bid 10%, but will properly get 8% depending on the currency fluctuation over the period of the loan.

 Screenshot of MyC4 in new design
 MyC4 new release

MyC4 – first issue of CHANGE magazine

wiseclerk

MyC4 has just published a quarterly magazine to accompany it's website. The first issue of Change has 20 pages, looks stylish and has lots of information (e.g. Senegal will be the next market, where loans are available to borrowers starting in June). Here is what MyC4 says about it's magazine:

We have just released the very first issue of CHANGE – the magazine that comes all way around MyC4: Vision, business model, partners, supporters, etc.